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In Extremis
"In Extremis" is the twentieth episode of season 2, and overall the forty-third produced hour of Person of Interest. It originally aired on April 25, 2013 Synopsis When a luminary in the world of medicine is poisoned, Reese and Finch have just 24 hours to determine the deadly toxin he was given and find the person behind the attack. Meanwhile, Detective Fusco’s past corruption catches up with him when an informant gives the Internal Affairs Bureau the crucial information they need to send him to prison. Flashbacks explore how Detective Fusco became involved with HR and the development of his friendship with Detective Stills. Because of the Internal Affairs investigation, Detective Carter is forced to evaluate her partnership with Fusco and how she might help him with the problems he is facing. While Reese is busy with the doctor, she and Finch are left to deal with fallout from the investigation. During the episode, the machine experiences a number of glitches as blue screens constantly interrupt its perspective of video feeds. Eventually it displays a red screen with the message FATAL ERROR, and displays a screen stating that the feeds are corrupted and that primary core functions are suspended. The messages indicate: Feed analysis suspended - ''Threat detection suspended - 'Data corruption: 86.914%'' - Fatal error - Operations compromised - Heuristics offline - Threat To System - Shutting down Episode Notes *"In extremis" is a Latin phrase, which refers to extreme conditions or finality. *Dr. Nelson was poisoned with polonium, a radioactive element. Similar to uranium, it is also highly toxic, and can kill through exposure or ingestion. *The Domain Awareness System used by IAB to find the disturbed ground was developed by the New York Police Department in collaboration with Microsoft. Its objective is to harness and analyze video feeds, license plate reader output and other data sources as part of an on-going anti-terrorism initiative. It is a scaled-down version of the failed United States Department of Defense Total Information Awarness program, in the sense that coverage area is that of the New York Metropolitan region. Trivia *The person of interest is a dying man trying to solve his own murder. This plot line is a variation on a theme from the film D.O.A (1950). In the film, the protagonist was poisoned with a luminous toxin (most likely radioactive). *Coincidentally, Dennis Boutsikaris, who plays this week's person of interest, recently played a character in similar circumstances on CBS's Elementary, in the episode "Possibility Two". Elementary, a contemporary reimagination of "Sherlock Holmes", is broadcast immediately following Person of Interest and also is set and filmed in New York. Literary Elements *'''Juxtaposition, the act of placing or positioning abstract elements side-by-side or back-to-back to illustrate a contrast or contradiction, is used in this episode to transition from the scene showing, the respected but flawed, Dr. Nelson being honored to the scene of Cal Beecher's funeral. To create a sense of irony, the two characters recited quotations from the Greek philosopher Plato, which define their characters while bridging the two scenes, setting up the contrast between the good, but dying doctor and the bad but living Alonzo Quinn, who set in motion the chain of events that led to the demise of his godson. To state succintly, the Alonzo Quinn is "a bad person who uses the arguments of good people" (from Good Wife episode entitled Death of a Client) * The story of Fusco's past with Stills also uses juxtaposition and irony, this time to contrast the good cop Fusco has become with the bad cop he was. In both cases, the irony was that he was forced by circumstances to change, first by Stills and later by Reese and Finch. Quotes * "Domain awareness, my friend. Satellites, they're changing the world. You pick a time and place, we send you a photo of the ass hairs on a frog, or in this case, disturbed plots of earth in Oyster Bay." - Det. Soriano (Internal Affairs Bureau) to Det. Fusco * "Knowledge is the food of the soul." -Plato, quoted by Dr. Nelson * "He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it." -Plato, quoted by Alonzo Quinn